Cliff Goddard

Professor Cliff Goddard is a leading scholar in linguistic semantics and cross-cultural communication at Griffith University's School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science. He specializes in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework and advocates for 'minimal languages' to enhance communication clarity. His research spans lexical semantics, cultural pragmatics, and intercultural dialogue.

Key roles include membership in the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. His funded projects include studies on health communication strategies (NHMRC 2023-2025), semantic typology (ARC 2021-2025), and comparative pragmatics (Griffith grants 2012-2018). He has supervised over a dozen doctoral students focusing on areas like linguistic semantics, cultural pragmatics, and language documentation.

Teaching interests include introductory linguistics, East/Southeast Asian languages, and translation studies. He currently directs the Bachelor of Languages and Linguistics program. His work bridges linguistics with anthropology, psychology, and communication studies, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches.